The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

On Tuesday, Sept. 14, the population of Waitsburg will triple in size, at least for a few days. Normally around 1,250, the addition of about 2,500 bicyclists and support personnel from Cycle Oregon means there will be almost 4,000 people in town. Waitsburg is used to having lots of visitors. The annual Lions' Rib Fest and Days of Real Sport horse racing event in May, and the Commercial Club's salmon barbeque and the Pioneer Fall Festival in September usually bring hun­dreds, sometimes more than 1,000 folks to town but never this many. Not even the spring Tour Of Walla Walla cycling event, which brings more than 600 travelers here, doesn't come close.

The Cycle Oregon is a unique moment for Waitsburg. Although it's possible that its Portland-based organizers will chose this community for its route again some time in the future, there's no guarantee the visitors will come back as a group. The 2,200 cyclists who are expected here next week are from many different states and from Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan and Sweden. With so many visitors from across the country and abroad, Cycle Oregon is an opportunity for Waitsburgers to showcase our proud historic town to the world and for residents to get to know cyclists from far and wide through home visits and a variety of volunteer opportunities. For three days, Waitsburgers will become soigneurs (French for "those who care for") to the Cycle Oregon riders, much as they do for the racers in the Tour of Walla Walla. Although well organized and very much self-contained with the exception of volunteer support for food service, recycling, entertainment and other activities where the town will help out, the influxof this many travelers will make Waitsburg stretch for a few days.

Restaurants will be full, the fairgrounds will look like a large encampment and there will be cars and bikes ev­erywhere.

A lot of the work has already been done. Key organiz­ers, including Deputy City Clerk Kelly Steinhoff, Deanne and Larry Johnson, Mayor Walt Gobel, Gwyn Gobel, Marilyn Johnson, Dr. Carol Clarke, Sharon Clinton, Sandy Torres, Doris Hulce, Joan Helm, Glynn Davis, Roseann Groom, Mike Ferrians and Carrie Graham, have worked tirelessly to prepare the city for Cycle Oregon 2010.

As with previous large-scale events, Waitsburgers will undoubtedly add to the town's reputation as a welcoming destination for travelers. Already, Waitsburg has gotten more nationwide attention recently through articles in the Seattle Times' Travel Section (which was nationally syn­dicated) and Food Wine Magazine. Travelers like those who signed up for the weeklong Cycle Oregon tour that culminates in the Pendleton Roundup on Sept. 17 will welcome the chance to pedaling away from their largely urban homes and take a trip down Memory Lane to experience the intimate scale, history and culture of a town like Waitsburg.

From Waitsburgers' perspective, it's a chance to greet and entertain an international crowd, sell (and buy) local products and merchandise, earn some extra dollars for community causes and inspire travelers to return to a town that receives an important portion of its income from visi­tors.

Each year, Cycle Oregon considers community de­velopment grant proposals from the towns on its annual weeklong tour and Waitsburg is as eligible as the other communities on this year's route.

We hope next week will be the first step in what will become a lasting relationship with Cycle Oregon, its orga­nizers and its participants. Let's put our best foot forward as the best soigneurs we can be for Cycle Oregon.